The present invention relates to a cup holder unit for holding a can, container, or the like, wherein the cup holder unit can stably hold a holder member.
FIG. 9 shows a cup holder unit disclosed in Patent Reference 1, which comprises a housing case (retainer) 50, a tray 51 that switches between a pulled-out position and a stored position relative to the case 50, and a holder member 52 that switches from a non-usable position where it is superposed above the tray 51 and housed in the case 50 to a usable position where it is raised by a forward movement of the tray 51. When the holder member 52 is in the usable position, a container K, rested on the tray 51, is surrounded and restricted by a hole of a holding section 52a. The tray 51 has a pair of mounting pieces 51a projecting from a bottom surface thereof, and is moved along guide rails disposed at both inner sides of the case 50.
The holder member 52 has a pair of support pieces 52b connected to the holding section 52a, pins 53 projecting from the support pieces 52b, a lower stopper surface 52c, and an upper lock section 52d disposed on a base end side of the support pieces 52b. The holder member 52 is rotatably assembled with the mounting pieces 51a via the pins 53, and is biased upwardly by a spring member (not shown).
In an operation, when the tray 51 is pulled out from the stored position to the pulled-out position, the holder member 52 is lifted up at an angle using the bias force about the pins 53. In this state; the stopper surface 52c abuts against the bottom plate of the tray 51 to restrict the holder member 52 from turning excessively. The lock section 52d engages an upper plate of the case 50 to prevent the holder member 52 from turning toward the non-usable position even when a downward load F is inadvertently applied to the holder member 52.
Reference numeral 54 is a sub-holder member, which absorbs rattling of the container by pressing a periphery of the container in one direction when the container is smaller than the hole of the holding member 52a. 
Patent Reference 1: Japanese Patent No. 2794389
An attempt to improve performance and simplify each switching operation of the cup holder unit described above is restricted for the following reasons. Since the holder member 52 is raised by pivoting about the pin 53 using the bias force of the spring member, the bias force of the spring member needs to be large, which becomes a factor in reducing the switching operation performance. This is because the load received by the holder member 52 from the case 50 to place itself above the tray 51 when the tray 51 is switched to the stored position, for example, needs to be as large as or in proportion to the bias force of the spring member.
It is structurally desirable, therefore, to omit the spring member for moving the holder member upwardly while maintaining the operational characteristics. The tray 51 and the holding member 52 are connected simply via the pins 53, and always move back and forth as a unit. Thus, the unit lacks design flexibility. Moreover, in the structure wherein the holder member 52 is raised and the container K is inserted into the hole of the holding section 52a for peripheral restriction, the holder member 52 is desirably raised so as to be oriented in parallel to the tray 51 to the extent possible from the perspectives of holding stability and appearance. In this case, the construction that employs a parallel link (Patent Reference 1) to move the holder member up and down relative to the tray increases the overall size of the tray.
The present inventors have previously developed the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 2003-190899 to eliminate the problems described above.
An object of the present invention is to make further improvement to the previous invention to improve quality by increasing the operational performance of each member while simplifying the construction.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.